Supertramp - …Famous Last Words… (1982)

Their last album with Roger Hodgson blends his folk-pop style (ala Quietest Moments) with Rick Davies R&B leanings.

Supertramp released their seventh studio album, …Famous Last Words…, in October 1982 on A&M. It features four songs by baritone/pianist Rick Davies and five by tenor/guitarist Roger Hodgson, including the lead-off hit “It’s Raining Again,” a melancholy yet upbeat song with the inspirational “Come on, you little fighter” bridge. Its video dramatization — where band members are seen playing randomly amid the pratfalls of the song’s lovelorn subject — marked Supertramp’s entry into the MTV era.

Hodgson’s other numbers range from the urgent, rattling opener “Crazy” to the smooth sailing “C’est le Bon,” a crisp, quiet stumalong with airy harmonies. He closes side one with “Know Who You Are,” a desolate, minor key ballad comprised of voice and picked acoustic guitar (double-tracked) with mild strings arranged by Hewson.

The unaccompanied nature of “Know Who You Are” reveals a creative gulf with Davies, who created the album’s other hit, “My Kind of Lady,” a ’50s-style piano boogie ballad in the vein of Fats Domino. Davies explores his full vocal range in the song, from his normal baritone to the high-pitched falsetto heard earlier on “Poor Boy” and “Goodbye Stranger.” Hodgson is absent from the recording and the doo-wop segments in the video, where the remaining band croon in vintage fashion behind a clean-shaven Davies. His penchant for classic R&B is further exemplified by “Put On Your Old Brown Shoes.”

Davies also composed “Bonnie,” a sequence of earnest minor-key passages that resolve with a grandiose instrumental finale in heavenly C major. The album’s last two songs, “Waiting So Long” (Davies) and “Don’t Leave Me Now” (Hodgson), recall the slow piano-buildup epics of the Quietest Moments era.

Supertramp co-produced …Famous Last Words… with their ongoing soundman Peter Henderson, who engineered the album with one Norman Hall. Davies recorded most of his parts at Backyard Studios, his home facility in Encino, Calif. Group sessions largely took place at Unicorn Studios, Hodgson’s home facility in Nevada City, Calif. Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart sing backing vocals on “Old Brown Shoes” and “C’est le Bon.”

Davies intended to use a 10-minute epic, “Brother Where You Bound,” as the album’s centerpiece. This was vetoed by Hodgson, whose differences with Davies came to a head during sessions for the album, which ran through the summer of 1982. The title …Famous Last Words… is a reference to Roger’s growing desire to part ways with the band.

The title inspired the album’s cover, conceived by Doud and designer Norman Moore with photography by Tom Gibson and Jules Bates. It shows a tightrope walker balanced over endless depths, alarmed as a hand reaches out with pair of scissors, seconds away from cutting the rope. The inner-sleeve shows multiples of each member doing imitation balancing acts on neon beams. Moore’s numerous visual credits include albums by Boxer (Absolutely), Cafe Jacques (Round the Back), Sherbet (Highway 1), and The Police (Synchronicity).

Eight months after …Famous Last Words… hit shelves, Supertramp launched a transatlantic tour with two auxiliary players: musicians and backing vocalists Fred Mandel (keyboards, guitar) and Scott Page (saxophones, flute, guitar). Mandel was a longtime backing player of Alice Cooper with additional credits on albums by Domenic Troiano, Lisa Dal Bello, and (most recently) Queen guitarist Brian May. Page — son of jazz bandleader Bill Page — had sideman credits dating back to the 1972 UNI Records release by the Mothers of Invention spinoff Geronimo Black.

The tour wrapped in California on September 25, 1983, at Irving Meadows. This would be Hodgson’s final show with Supertramp, who left the band to focus on family life and record independently. He’d already recorded material for his debut solo album, tentatively titled Sleeping With the Enemy.

Upon his exit from Supertramp, Hodgson recut some of the existing tracks for In the Eye of the Storm, released in September 1984 on A&M. As with the two closing numbers on Last Words, the music draws stylistic elements from the Quietest Moments era (grand, spacious, piano-driven epics). An edit of the opening number, “Had a Dream (Sleeping with the Enemy),” became an FM rock hit with a medium-rotation MTV clip.

Meanwhile, Davies expanded his unused epic from the Last Words sessions into a 16-minute opus for the next Supertramp album.